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Astral Atlas
Cross-tradition · Wiki 15

Horary / interrogations / Prashna

Independent question chart and worksheet
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How to use Horary worksheet

Organize a question judgement with a separate tropical Regiomontanus chart, classical significators, selected dignity conditions and a seven-day event sequence. The worksheet exposes some evidence for interpretation; it does not deliver a complete traditional verdict.

Inputs: Exact question, recorded local date and time, IANA time zone and question coordinates. Resolve a repeated clock time if needed. Record the practice used to choose the moment in the notes; the natal timestamp is not used automatically.

  1. Enter the question and its recorded moment, then choose the question location.
  2. Cast the chart and select the house for the matter. Record why that house represents the quesited.
  3. Select each significator and the Moon. Inspect the five dignity holders, exact term/face strips and day/night triplicity. Use the endpoint selector only to compare the declared arithmetic conventions.
  4. Read the accidental-condition cards: house category, motion and solar proximity. Check same-sign and Sun/Moon exceptions and open the source-difference notes before interpreting.
  5. Read reception directionally, then compare the applying/separating aspect with the actual event sequence.
  6. Review exact contacts, ingresses and stations. Translation and collection of light require manual judgement.
  7. Save supporting and contrary testimony in the notes and download the worksheet. Preserve an inconclusive result when the chosen method supplies insufficient testimony.
Teaching example · invented coordinates

Invented positions: Mercury at 10° Virgo and Jupiter at 12° Taurus are 118° apart. With Mercury moving direct at 1.2° per day and Jupiter at 0.2° per day, their separation increases toward the 120° trine. The current motion is applying with a 2° gap. Their full orbs of 7° and 9° give an 8° pair allowance. This does not convert the gap into two days or guarantee a completed contact.

This preset uses tropical Regiomontanus independently of the natal lens; it is not a Prashna mode. The five essential dignities follow Lilly’s printed table, with detriment and fall shown separately. Peregrine requires all five checks and known day/night. Hosting checks all five positional links; the accidental ledger adds selected house/motion/solar conditions, but a full score, reception and perfection still require additional judgment. Endpoint comparison does not reconstruct historical minute rounding. The seven-day event search is finite, and the Moon’s sign-exit count is one defined test, not a universal void-of-course judgement. The quesited is not always house seven, and dignity or application alone does not supply an answer.

Open Horary worksheet →All glossary terms →
Sources and conventions

History & development

Horary or interrogational astrology judges a question from a question-related chart. William Lilly’s Christian Astrology (1647) contains English instruction and worked question judgements. Prashna belongs to Indian question astrology; for one named approach, P. V. R. Narasimha Rao’s chapter 29 applies Tajaka combinations to Prashna charts. That author’s account is not a universal protocol for every Prashna lineage. The comparison here does not assume identical chart or judgement rules.

Mythology & symbolic world

The question becomes a symbolic scene: planets can signify the questioner, other people or the matter being asked about. Traditional house language is contextual; it does not authorize inventing identities or intentions for real people.

Provenance: where the rules come from

Record the exact question, its context, the rule used to choose the moment, the local clock time, time zone and question location. Cite the selected text when assigning houses and weighing testimony. This Atlas worksheet uses tropical Regiomontanus with classical sign rulers independently of the natal reading lens. Selecting Lahiri elsewhere does not turn it into a Prashna calculation. Lilly’s historical text and Rao’s named teaching support different methodological descriptions; neither is empirical proof of an answer.

How it is calculated

Enter the question, local date and time, IANA time zone and coordinates; resolve a repeated clock time when needed. The worksheet calculates a separate chart, takes the querent from the first-house cusp ruler and the matter from the selected house’s cusp ruler, and displays seven classical planets. It evaluates domicile, exaltation, day/night triplicity, bounds and faces using Lilly’s printed table, plus detriment and fall. The default continuous intervals assign exact internal cutoffs to the next segment; an upper-inclusive comparison assigns them to the previous one. Sign rollover remains at 30°. All five absent dignities establish peregrine under this table only when day/night is known. For each major aspect, pair allowance = half the sum of the adopted full planetary orbs. Applying/separating uses relative longitude motion. A separate seven-day search finds exact 0°, 60°, 90°, 120° and 180° contacts, sign ingresses and stations. A separate accidental-condition ledger reports angular/succedent/cadent category, direct/retrograde/zero motion, and exclusive cazimi/combust/under-beams/outside-range categories using a declared longitude-only rule.

Choices that change the result: The fixed full-orb list is Sun 15°, Moon 12°, Mercury 7°, Venus 7°, Mars 7°, Jupiter 9°, Saturn 9°. For Mercury and Jupiter, the pair allowance is (7° + 9°) / 2 = 8°. Hosting labels show all five positional dignity relations from holder to occupant without requiring an aspect. Day uses true topocentric Sun-center altitude at or above zero, without refraction. The worksheet exports the selected table, endpoint convention, planetary facts and both hosting directions. The Moon summary counts exact major contacts before its next ingress within the search window. These are declared worksheet rules, not a complete classical judgement or a generic definition of void of course. Solar thresholds follow the pp.113–115 instructional passage: cazimi <=17 arcminutes; otherwise same-sign combustion <8.5 degrees; otherwise beams <17 degrees. Endpoint inclusion and 1e-10 degree boundary tolerance are explicit Atlas conventions. The conflicting p.300 thresholds are documented separately.

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Uses & use cases

  • Reconstruct a historical question chart with its recorded context and named method.
  • Learn to distinguish an astronomical event, a traditional condition and an interpretive conclusion.
  • Keep supporting and contrary testimony in a worksheet and later record what happened.
  • Compare a Western method with a named Prashna approach without substituting one rule set for the other.

Interpretation methods

Method 1

Choose and document the question chart

In the Horary worksheet, enter the actual question moment and location under the chosen practice. “Use profile location only” copies a location, not the natal timestamp. “Use current UTC time” is appropriate only if that is the intended question moment. Explain the choice in the notes.

Study example

A question received today is not cast for a person’s birth date merely because that profile is open. Two different choices of question moment must remain two explicitly different study charts.

Method 2

Assign significators and inspect condition

Select the house for the matter and document why it fits. Inspect the significators and Moon against all five essential dignities in Lilly’s printed table. Select a planet to see its exact term and face, the day/night triplicity ruler and any coexisting detriment or fall.

Study example

Mercury at 10° Virgo receives both domicile and exaltation flags. Mercury at 10° Pisces receives detriment and fall flags. These are sign-table classifications, not an automatic answer about the people represented.

Method 3

Separate essential dignity from chart circumstances

Select a planet to inspect its Regiomontanus house category, signed apparent motion and solar-proximity condition. The solar ledger uses the explicit pp.113–115 preset, reports raw longitude separation and distinguishes instantaneous narrowing/widening from a complete application/separation doctrine. Sun/Moon direct motion receives no direct-fortitude claim.

Study example

An invented Sun at 29° Aries and Venus at 1° Taurus are 2° apart across a sign boundary. Under the selected preset, Venus is under the beams rather than combust because combustion requires the same sign. This is not an optical-visibility result.

Method 4

Read reception in the displayed direction

Read “A hosts B” as B occupying one or more dignities held by A at B’s exact position. The display includes domicile, exaltation, triplicity, terms and faces under the selected endpoint convention. Aspect requirements and the sufficiency of minor reception testimony belong to the chosen historical method; positional hosting alone is not a complete reception judgment.

Study example

If Mercury is in Pisces, Jupiter can receive Mercury by domicile even when no major aspect falls within the chosen allowance. That label alone does not establish mutual reception or agreement between two people.

Method 5

Follow the event sequence

Compare present application with the computed sequence of exact contacts, ingresses and stations. Examine the Moon’s contacts before its sign exit, then record supporting and contrary testimony. Translation and collection of light still need manual assessment.

Study example

An invented Mercury at 10° Virgo and Jupiter at 12° Taurus are 2° from a trine. If Mercury moves direct at 1.2° per day and Jupiter at 0.2° per day, the current motion is applying; an actual time of contact still requires following both trajectories.

Method 6

Compare a named Prashna method

State which Prashna text or teacher is being studied, along with its zodiac, ayanamsha, chart and judgement rules. Rao’s Tajaka discussion is one sourced route for comparison. Preserve those choices separately; the current Western worksheet does not calculate that Prashna protocol.

Study example

A Prashna study may name a particular Tajaka combination. Relabeling a tropical Regiomontanus chart as “Vedic” does not calculate that combination or establish its prescribed interpretation.

Explore these reading approaches

Traditional rules and planetary condition ↗Horary or question-chart reading ↗

Concepts in this tradition

Follow a term for its definition, word origin, evidence and connected ideas.

Horary / interrogations / Prashna →

Disagreements & limits

  • No automatic yes/no answer or complete traditional judgement is produced.
  • The five essential dignities are evaluated under Lilly’s printed table. Alternative tables, historical minute rounding, a complete accidental-dignity score and full reception/perfection judgment remain separate. Exact-cutoff options are declared arithmetic conventions.
  • House membership uses ecliptic longitude. If Regiomontanus cusps are unavailable at the selected location, this preset cannot assign its house-ruler significators.
  • The seven-day search is finite. A missing event is not a claim that it never occurs, and an applying aspect now need not complete before intervening changes.
  • The Moon’s “perfects before sign exit” count is not interchangeable with every historical definition of void of course.
  • A computed angular event does not demonstrate the outcome of a question. A chart cannot establish another person’s hidden actions or intentions.

Sources & evidence

Practitioner sources describe their own systems. Historical and astronomical sources support different kinds of claims. Reading exercises are editorial teaching examples.

  1. William Lilly, Christian Astrology ↗historical primary text and edition information
  2. William Lilly: Christian Astrology (1647), original text, pp. 101–112 ↗historical primary text; original edition OCR
  3. P. V. R. Narasimha Rao: Vedic Astrology, An Integrated Approach, chapter 29 ↗first-party practitioner teaching; one Prashna approach
  4. William Lilly, Christian Astrology (1647), original printed p104 ↗historical primary printed table; all twelve rows independently transcribed
  5. William Lilly: Christian Astrology, original p.48 · house categories ↗original historical text; independently visually verified
  6. William Lilly: Christian Astrology, original p.113 · solar conditions ↗original historical text; independently visually verified
  7. William Lilly: Christian Astrology, original p.114 · combustion and cazimi ↗original historical text; independently visually verified
  8. William Lilly: Christian Astrology, original p.115 · accidental fortitudes ↗original historical text; independently visually verified
  9. William Lilly: Christian Astrology, original p.300 · differing aphorism thresholds ↗original historical text; independently visually verified
  10. William Lilly: Christian Astrology, original p.110 · application and separation ↗original historical text; independently visually verified

Connected entries

Hellenistic / traditional →Persian / Arabic / medieval Latin / Renaissance →Electional / Muhurta →Jyotish / Parashari family →